Not Always a Happy Birthday

Birthday by Meredith Russo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A difficult but worthwhile read. Main characters Eric and Morgan are immediately engaging and you root for them all the way through. Story is told using alternating POV chapters, which works well. Word of warning that there is content here that is confronting: death of a parent; violence and domestic abuse – it puts you through the wringer.
Not a spoiler to say there is a ray of hope at the end, so don’t give up on this one.
However, I would venture to say that this book is at the more adult end of the YA spectrum, so keep that in mind!
For ages 16 and up.

A Transformative Origin Story

Dreadnought by April Daniels
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. This book is a killer superhero origin story – but it’s so much more than that. It’s about identity, acceptance, fighting transmisogyny, family, friendship – and yes, superheroes. Danny, who has never felt comfortable in her “male” body, gets caught up in a battle between superheroes – which in this world is a regular occurance – and becomes the vessel for superhero powers. As a result of this, she transitions into a female body; and awesome superpowers (like flying) into the bargain. As if transitioning so quickly wasn’t enough of a rollercoaster, April Daniels decides to give her protagonist an aggressive father, a superhero nemesis, and a murder plot to solve!
I loved this first instalment in this series. Can’t wait to see what adventures await Dreadnought in the next volumes!
For anyone who seeks to understand the transgender experience, the good and the bad, and enjoys seeing a superhero become what they were destined to be – this is for you.
Highly recommended. Ages 12 and up.

Grace under pressure

Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Grayson Sender is in sixth grade at Porter high; lives with his uncle and aunt, and cousins Brett and Jack after losing his parents in a car crash when he was very small. And Grayson knows he’s supposed to be something else. Throughout this novel it is clear Grayson identifies as a girl, but currently lives as a boy. It is something he hides on a daily basis, but when the chance to audition for the part of Persphone in the school play is in the offing, Grayson grabs it with both hands.
When Grayson is successfully awarded the lead, written as a female, things get complicated- for everyone but Grayson who for the first time in a long time, starts to feel comfortable in his own skin. His aunt struggles with the idea of Grayson playing a girl, but his uncle is quietly (perhaps too quietly initally) supportive. Jack, his older cousin, is openly hostile and causes trouble for Grayson at school, which leads to an event that ends up bringing things to a head, and a bid by Grayson for acceptance and acknowledgement.
Along the way there are characters, like Grayson’s teacher Finn, who encourage Grayson to be whoever Grayson wants to be, and others like Amelia; whose friendship with Grayson becomes changeable as the real Grayson becomes more visible. As Grayson becomes increasingly invested in the play there are friends in the play who accept Grayson, which helps Grayson assert the right to explore long-held questions of identity. In conversations with Uncle Evan, Grayson learns that until Aunt Sally put a stop to it (because of what she worried others might think or do), Grayson used to dress up in tutus and dresses and say he wanted to be a girl. This is a revelation for Grayson and shores up the determination to step out of the shadows.
The freeverse poem that charts the night of the play is a great way to explore the emotion of the night and how others finally see who Grayson really is. There is also a lovely letter to Grayson from the ever-amazing Finn. That’s not to say everything is tied up neatly in a bow at the end – far from it. But we are left with a sense that Grayson is finding the path to a new way of being, and that there are a lot of people in Grayson’s corner – even Aunt Sally. It leaves us with the most important thing – hope.
I really enjoyed this gently uplifting novel and it’s pitched perfectly at the middle grade, and edges of young adult, readership.
For the reader who is looking for validation and to be seen, this novel is a great start.

Ride the whirlwind

Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A.S. King is one of my favourite US YA writers. She manages to weave fantasy and reality together so deftly you hardly notice it. Sarah, this novel’s protagonist, is a sixteen year old who is floundering. She feels lost, disconnected and uncomfortable in her own skin – so much so that she wants to change her name: to Umbrella. Little by little we see the cracks in Sarah. She starts to encounter other versions of herself, at 10 years old, 23 years old, and finally at 40 years old. Sometimes she is with all three. King lets Sarah, for the most part, push the story along – but there are periodic interjections from her mother, Helen. Helen, an ER nurse who works mainly at night, also reveals herself bit by bit and as we read we realise that Sarah might not be the only family member in crisis. Sarah’s absent brother, Bruce, begins to form in the story about a third of the way in and it is clear his expulsion from the family in contributing to Sarah’s fragile state. I don’t want to say too much because there are so many kernels of wonderful to explore in this novel. Sarah is a great character: sensitive; smart; funny and trying to find the girl she once was; just like her mother Helen. Can’t wait to read the next A.S. King on my list – Dig

Lost Concentr8tion

Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(Recently found unpublished draft from 2016)

I was incredibly disappointed with this novel. The premise held such promise – a society that could be our own right now, treating “troublesome” young people with a cheap medication en masse to keep the peace, then the drug is taken away suddenly and there are riots in the streets. The story’s focus then becomes a group of friends who take a low-level government employee hostage – because they can.
I guess part of the reason for writing this book was to show that medicating children, stifling their emotions, is a rollercoaster to nowhere, and Sutcliffe has captured that well, but I wish there was MORE. This felt like lazy writing to me and I kept hoping there would be more to it. Like some other reviewers, I was not “gripped” by this story at all, and I really had to force myself to finish it so I could review it properly. Concentr8 is full of cliches, lots of swearing and not much else. A genuine disappointment from an author who is capable of so much more.
Suitable for mature readers 14 and up (mainly because of the swearing – there’s a LOT of it)

When lies become the truth

This Story Is a Lie by Tom Pollock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What an interesting read this was! Started out as one thing and then took a left turn and became something even better. Taut, suspenseful and compelling; this is a corker of a debut novel. Pollock is writing from a place of knowledge and his portrayal of Peter, in particular, is fantastic. I sympathised with his character straight away and loved his story arc as he becomes someone he never imagined he could be. There are plenty of sinister and shady support characters too, and the parental influences here are terrifying. The ending of this book left me hanging, which was absolutely by design and very cleverly done. I look forward to seeing what else comes from the mind of Tom Pollock. This is a very self-assured and breathtaking debut.

A Riotous Romp

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a corker. A fun romp with the dissolute and self-centred Monty and his faithful and close confidante, Percy. Along for the ride is Monty’s sister Felicity who is not your average Regency chick. After embarking on their Grand Tour, things go horribly awry for Monty and his party when he decides, out of spite, to pilfer a small box from the home of a French Minister, the Duke of Bourbon. Their trip turns into a daring and breathless chase across France, Spain and Italy as they are robbed, kidnapped and enlisted as pirates along the way.
Monty and Percy are developing a close relationship, closer than society would like and, to make things even more complicated, Percy reveals he is epileptic – an affliction that will see him thrown into an asylum.
Lee maintains a good narrative pace, and the characters are engaging and likeable. The historical details feel accurate and cover a wide variety of issues of the period. Of particular interest are the treatment of black people such as Percy, and conventions around the roles of women such as Felicity. Monty is the lens the reader sees these things through, and he learns as we learn.
Heartily recommended for ages 14 and up.

Americus the Beautiful

Americus by M.K. Reed

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Americus is one of the best graphic novels I have read in recent years. I have been meaning to read it for nearly five years, so I am glad I finally managed to catch up with it today. Set in the ficticious town of Americus, the plot centres around a young guy, Neil, who has just started high school in the US (Year 9) and his life. Neil and his best friend, Danny, are ardent fans of a book series called The Adventures of Apathea Ravenchilde (a thinly veiled Harry Potter lookalike). Danny’s mum is, in the Australian vernacular, a God botherer. She takes it upon herself to “save” Danny from the satanic evils of witchcraft by tearing up the latest installment in the series in front of the local public librarian and then sends Danny to military school so he won’t risk being exposed to the wickedness Americus’ public library. Parents, town officials, school management and the kids square off against one another in various combinations as the fight for the right to read starts a battle for the ages. Neil is a perfectly pitched character – embarrassed by his own mum’s fussing, but grateful for her support when he needs it most; awkward around most people, but starting to find his tribe by the close of proceedings. I loved every page of this fantastic book. There is plenty to say here, and clearly the writer is firmly on the side of reading freedom, but there is room for discussion with young people around the issues this raises. Karma is handed out to all – and the ultimate irony of Danny’s banishment by his mother when he writes to Neil about what he is reading is sweet perfection.
An instant classic and suitable for ages 12 and up.

X marks my heart

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hot tears of recognition stained my face as I finished reading this in a cafe this morning. Xiomara lives with her twin and parents in Harlem. She is fierce and feisty and has had to defend herself against unwanted male attention, thanks to a early-maturing body, for a long time. Constantly warned by her fervently religious mother about the perils of her own body, X writes poetry to escape and to make sense of a world that constantly tells her to be ashamed of who she is.

When your body takes up more room than your voice
you are always the target of well-aimed rumors,
which is why I let my knuckles talk for me.
Which is why I learned to shrug when my name was replaced
by insults.
I’ve forced my skin just as thick as I am.

X becomes involved romantically with a boy named Aman, who loves her for her words, and her heart, rather than what her body appears to promise. Encouraged by her English teacher, X joins a poetry club at school and finds her tribe; like-minded souls whose emotions spill onto the page just like hers.
The suffocation of Xiomara’s life, under the searing gaze of her judgemental and punitive mother, is palpable. Always being told what she is not allowed to do or allowed to be because she is a girl, X pours her hopes, dreams, frustration and anger onto the pages of her precious leather-bound journal.

And I think about all the things we could be
if we were never told our bodies were not built for them.

Caught kissing Aman one day, X’s life spirals out of control and what comes next for her is devastating, terrifying, and agonising. My heart ached and broke for this wonderful girl, and for her twin brother, as they faced gut-wrenching choices about what comes next.
I held this book to my chest when I finished it, trying to imprint Xiomara and her poetry onto my heart. I didn’t need to; they were already there, and there they will stay. I think this is probably the best YA I have read all year, and possibly WILL BE the best I have read all year. It will take something remarkable to top it.
Highly and enthusiastically recommended. Do not wait. Do not “put it on your list”.

Read it. Now.

Big Money

Munmun by Jesse Andrews

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having not read Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, I was not sure what to expect from this Jesse Andrews offering. Having heard a little more about Me and Earl, I am really glad I have not read it yet. This book sounds like a HUGE departure from that one. In the world Andrews has created in MunMun, how much cash you have determines how big you are – literally. The more munmun you have, the more upscale you are. If you have only a few hundred munmuns, you are ten inches tall. if you have 2 million, you are the size of a house or bigger. It is a most disarming premise and difficult to wrap your head around at first. What is clear though is that the smaller people are in peril every day of their lives. Middlepoors and middleriches (the in-between sizes) step on their houses, or worse, their cats eat the Littlepoors. It is a harsh existence and our hero, Warner, and his sister, Prayer, are locked in a struggle to improve their situation by earning more munmuns. Opportunities to do this are limited. The less you have, the less you have access to – and turning to crime, or selling yourself to the bigger citizens feels like the only way to make things change.
This book is a searing satire with is gaze firmly on the USA and the policies of Trump Republicanism. The more is more philosophy of the current presidency, and the willingness to leave the “little guy” behind, despite their beautiful dreams of another life, is to the fore here. The closing scenes of the book are tinged with hope, but only because there is decimation before. I won’t say any more, because I hate spoilers, but this book must be read to be believed. I have never read anything like it, although there are echoes of Gulliver’s Travels in the way the society views those who are not “one of them”. Lots of otherness, lots of things to think about. Definitely worth the effort of bending your mind around this version of the Yewess.